Goldman Sachs has made a big hire in electronic trading

Goldman Sachs is bringing on a technology veteran to help drive its electronic trading business.

Mike Blum, the former chief technology officer at KCG Holdings, the high-frequency trading firm recently acquired by Virtu Financial, is joining Goldman as CTO for its electronic trading unit, according to an internal memo seen by Business Insider. Bloomberg News first reported the hire.

He will join as a partner, making him a rare example of a partner-level hire at the firm.

As part of his role, he will be responsible for setting standards for Securities Systematic Solutions, a newly created initiative that seeks to bring together all electronic trading efforts.

Blum will report to Konstantin Shakhnovich, Umesh Subramanian and Raj Mahajan, according to the memo.

Goldman Sachs has made technology a key part of its trading strategy. Paul Russo, the global co-COO of the equities franchise in the securities division at the bank, said it was one of two key components of the bank's strategy in equities in a recent episode of "Exchanges at Goldman Sachs."

"We have spent the last three to four years heavily, heavily investing in technology, literally redoing most things," Russo said.

Blum's role will touch the bank's trading operations across asset classes.

As chief technology officer at KCG, Blum "oversaw the design and build-out of a new trading and research platform," according to Bloomberg.

He also held top tech jobs at Teza Technologies and Getco, a now defunct HFT.